I need a little quick advice. For the past few months I've been struggling with my ends. I'm normally a wash n go girl but I guess those days are over now that my hair's getting fairly long and because I've been getting so many SSKs even when I was keeping up with my moisturizing regimen. The last time I had trimmed my hair was in Feb but in the last few weeks, I've been noticing tons of splits along the bottom 2 inches of my hair now. I've been trying to keep up with my SnD but I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. The only thing I know for sure is that my actual ends aren't splitting. It's fairly odd that I'm seeing this now. I've never experienced anything like this. It's not like I use combs or anything normally. I finger detangle at least once weekly and always in the shower while I have a heavy load of conditioner in my hair. At first, I figured that I have been handling my hair too roughly but they're still showing up even though I'm being as gentle as possible. I'm just about to go wig it because this is all getting to be too much for me but before I do, does anyone have any good suggestions on how to handle this before I suffer a huge setback?

I need a little quick advice. For the past few months I've been struggling with my ends. I'm normally a wash n go girl but I guess those days are over now that my hair's getting fairly long and because I've been getting so many SSKs even when I was keeping up with my moisturizing regimen. The last time I had trimmed my hair was in Feb but in the last few weeks, I've been noticing tons of splits along the bottom 2 inches of my hair now. I've been trying to keep up with my SnD but I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. The only thing I know for sure is that my actual ends aren't splitting. It's fairly odd that I'm seeing this now. I've never experienced anything like this. It's not like I use combs or anything normally. I finger detangle at least once weekly and always in the shower while I have a heavy load of conditioner in my hair. At first, I figured that I have been handling my hair too roughly but they're still showing up even though I'm being as gentle as possible. I'm just about to go wig it because this is all getting to be too much for me but before I do, does anyone have any good suggestions on how to handle this before I suffer a huge setback?

What is your moisturizing regimen? Do you deep condition? And what products are you using? It's possible you are stretching your wash and goes too long. Maybe do them twice a week because you need to finger detangle often to get out the shed hairs and prevent your ends from drying out. It's also possible that the ends of your hair could be brushing against your shirt or something if it is that long.

I admit to being a little lax lately but it pretty much goes like this;

My scalp doesn't get too oily so I only shampoo once every 2 wks with SM Curl & Shine shampoo (or Tresemme's Moisture Rich if I'm in a pinch).I dc weekly using either Aussie Moist 3 Min. Miracle or either Shea Moisture Raw Shea Deep Tx (soft) or Nature's Gate Biotin (hard) for protein.My hair gets wet pretty much daily when I hop in the shower. Most times I apply Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture (or Moisture Rich if in a pinch) conditioner and let it sit for a few minutes before partially (to mostly) washing it out. I always dry off my hair using an old cotton t-shirt by wrapping it around my head (turban) for a few minutes. Depending on how my hair feels (sometimes filmy from the conditioner), I'll go ahead and apply some SM Curl & Style Milk and seal with coconut oil (or just seal if I still have enough Tresemme in my hair).My hair is on the low porosity end of the spectrum, so I only moisturize once a day. Used to do it twice (shower and before sleep) but my hair used to get too stretchy and would feel mushy before long.

I do agree that I need to detangle a bit more. I used to but when the SSKs started, I figured it was because of the amount of fingercombing I was doing in the shower in the first place. I have a Magic Rake but I've been afraid of using it since I've been getting these splits. Right now my hair is supposed to be somewhere between MBL and BSL when straightened but when shrunk (as with my wash n goes), it really doesn't hang lower than NL yet (the shrinkage is real).

I admit to being a little lax lately but it pretty much goes like this;

My
scalp doesn't get too oily so I only shampoo once every 2 wks with SM
Curl & Shine shampoo (or Tresemme's Moisture Rich if I'm in a
pinch).I dc weekly using either Aussie Moist 3 Min. Miracle or
either Shea Moisture Raw Shea Deep Tx (soft) or Nature's Gate Biotin
(hard) for protein.My hair gets wet pretty much daily when I hop in
the shower. Most times I apply Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture (or
Moisture Rich if in a pinch) conditioner and let it sit for a few
minutes before partially (to mostly) washing it out. I always dry off my
hair using an old cotton t-shirt by wrapping it around my head (turban)
for a few minutes. Depending on how my hair feels (sometimes filmy
from the conditioner), I'll go ahead and apply some SM Curl & Style
Milk and seal with coconut oil (or just seal if I still have enough
Tresemme in my hair).My hair is on the low porosity end of the
spectrum, so I only moisturize once a day. Used to do it twice (shower
and before sleep) but my hair used to get too stretchy and would feel
mushy before long.

I do agree that I need to detangle a bit more.
I used to but when the SSKs started, I figured it was because of the
amount of fingercombing I was doing in the shower in the first place. I
have a Magic Rake but I've been afraid of using it since I've been
getting these splits. Right now my hair is supposed to be somewhere
between MBL and BSL when straightened but when shrunk (as with my wash n
goes), it really doesn't hang lower than NL yet (the shrinkage is
real).

Since your hair is low porosity, you might want to consider using products that don't build up as much on the hair.

For
example, you only shampoo every 2 weeks and clearly when you tried to
increase your moisturizing, your hair tilted to the side of moisture
overload. This should tell you that your products are building up. Also, your shampoo is not efficient at removing that build up(see bottom). By build up i mean, not
on your scalp, but they are building up and blocking your hair cuticle,
something notoriously easy to develop with low porosity hair. moisture
overload is actually build up of conditioning agents. That gummy,
stretchy feeling is caused by build up conditioning agents like panthenol/biotin, coconut oil, and silicones
(which are in your products), the same way protein overload is caused
by build up of proteins. At the end of the day it's all build up and
build up produces many of the same basic symptoms being your hair is
dehydrated. I wouldn't worry so much about coconut it's minor compared
to the other problem ingredients in ur products though, but it does
contribute.

You may get that gummy overstretching feeling but
that is just the plasticizing or conditioning effect of the conditioning
agent, your hair is actually dry because not enough water is getting
into your hair's cortex. So far it is probably effecting your hair to
where you are not getting enough moisture into your cuticles, despite Deep Conditioning
since your DC has those build up causing ingredients. Your hair may
feel soft and lubricated, but it is not being moisturized efficiently.

The
cortex of your hair not getting efficient amounts of moisture, means
that the protein structure of your hair is going to be effected, causing
split ends. You may think that the protein treatments would help, but
because the underlying problem is moisture, and you have low porosity
hair, this could actually be making the problem worse. So now the weaker ends are the first being effected.

Right
now i think that you are getting one of the issues that set back low
porosity hair in terms of length retention the most. Many of us do not
know how to efficiently moisturize our hair, we get a sort of immediate
satisfaction and then reach a limit we can't get past with our hair.

i think that fingercombing is
very important. Try to detangle more often get out more shed hairs, and
especially drop the silicone product and space out and limit the protein more(in fact i would say completely drop them, low porosity hair pretty much hates hydrolyzed proteins/peptides, biotin/panthenol.) If
anything this would prevent SSK, not cause them. Of course drier hair
is prone to SSK, because when the hair isn't retaining enough moisture
in the cortex, it becomes very lightweight and prone to coiling upon
itself into a knot. I wouldn't recommend you to use a magic rake. That will likely make the situation worse.

Aside from the silicones, protein, and panthenol, i think the alcohols in your TNNM conditioner that you sometimes cowash with could be problematic. Drying effects of alcohol causes split ends as well. And your leave in
could also be too much protein for you. And coconut oil absorbs into
the hair shaft and plasticizes the cortex, so it can pretty much act
like a protein.

If you want to know how to efficiently
introduce moisture into low porosity hair, look into the max hydration
method. It systematically introduces moisture to the hair, and is ideal
for low porosity hair types.

Shea moisture shampoo(this may as well be a conditioner, so basically you just cowash. The ingredients in this will only add to build up. I see zero effective suficants. This isn't good since you do use products with silicones.)

So my analysis is these products are your leaving hair strands with build up, and that is causing your hair to be dehydrated. depite your attempts to moisturize it, the fact that you have build up and on top of that low porosity hair, means your hair isn't benefiting from these things. The dryness then causes split end prone hair.

SMH, I didn't know I was still building up like that w/o silicones
(mostly). I'm just gonna have to go back to my old routine I had when I
was starting. I used to buy a local brand here and their items were
really good.

I used to team up this shampoo with HE HH. I've
long since let go of HE HH because I felt like it was starting to build
up in my hair after a few yrs.

I know it has proteins and panthenol but my hair used to feel
squeaky clean afterwards. I also never had a moisture overload/dryness problem at all. I also used to use Giovanni Direct Leave-in as a protein leave-in. I forgot which proteins it had but I rem them being fairly weak.

Could you recommend any products I should try?

*sigh* I used to do the Cherry Lola Tx back in the day, looks like I'll be revisiting some old techniques that I stopped doing a while ago.

SMH, I didn't know I was still building up like that w/o silicones
(mostly). I'm just gonna have to go back to my old routine I had when I
was starting. I used to buy a local brand here and their items were
really good.

I used to team up this shampoo with HE HH. I've
long since let go of HE HH because I felt like it was starting to build
up in my hair after a few yrs.

I know it has proteins and panthenol but my hair used to feel
squeaky clean afterwards. I also never had a moisture overload/dryness problem at all. I also used to use Giovanni Direct Leave-in as a protein leave-in. I forgot which proteins it had but I rem them being fairly weak.

Could you recommend any products I should try?

*sigh* I used to do the Cherry Lola Tx back in the day, looks like I'll be revisiting some old techniques that I stopped doing a while ago.

yes, that shampoo would be a more effective clarifier. If your hair felt clean with it and liked it, it's worth a try.

For conditioning products, I swear by Trader joe's tea tree tingle, and kinky curly knot today as leave in, deep conditioner, and cowash. As a leave in when i use them, i water them down. I also water them down as my cowash and DC, but make them thicker. Very moisturizing ingredients. I myself don't use a shampoo, i clarify using bakingsoda, conditioner, and water mixture. And then a bentonite clay mixture. (MHM)

But for shampoos i think that if you look up one that has some form of gentle surficant(Not sulfates--unless for if you want to continue using silicones--or alcohol) it should work fine for clarifying.

Cherry Lola treatments are good, I also do them and a modified version from MHM. You may want to consider implementing bakingsoda mixtures and clay, they do well for low porosity hair. Like before you deep condition, do a cherry lola so ur cuticles are lifted, or do a clay rinse(both will lift the cuticle). Clay will strengthen the hair in a way low porosity hair better tolerates and even thrives with.

If you still like protein treatments, stick to mild ones like animal proteins and amino acids. They are better tolerated by low porosity hair that the ones that absorb and cling to the hair(peptides, hydrolyzed wheat protein, biotin/panthenol). Cherry lola(including the MHM version) would fit that category of mild protein treatents.

Here are the other mixtures in case u want to know:

Baking
soda rinse. Mix
1-2 tablespoons of baking soda into thick 1.5-3 oz conditioner. Add
4-7 oz of water. Shake. Apply to hair in sections and let sit on the
hair for 30-60 minutes. If being done on product free hair, lower
bakingsoda measurement to 1-2 teaspoons. This step is ideal for low
porosity hair, since it lifts the cuticle as well.

Clay
rinse

This
rinse can be done using any pure clay powder, like Bentonite
Clay, Rhassoul
clay,
red clay, zeolite clay, european clay, French
Green Sea clay and more. Using a funnel, you can pour each ingredient
into a large empty 32 shampoo/conditioner bottle, shake afterward,
use, and then store for the next day.

Thanks for the tips pinkecube. I was checking out the MHM thread and the steps were pretty close to what I used to do when I was transitioning and new at being natural. I never had any complaints then and I was just thinking that all of the knotting and splitting was what came with the territory now that my hair is this long.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot create polls in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum